I really wanted to like this more than I did. Primarily, this book simply suffers from "not my cup of tea." I felt about it the way I tend to feel about most collections; they begin to wear on me in a way that the short, repetitive narratives tend to, especially when read from cover to cover.

For the most part, I found the stories mildly amusing and not the laugh riot that I've seen people reference in reviews. The best essays to me came at the end, which is a shame, because at that point I was already worn out of the tone and structure of his short stories.

I loved hearing about Paris and his language struggles there. Truly, those were my favorite. The one time I went to Paris, I found myself having these same conversations about language, about being an American in another country, about finding myself loud and my tongue awkward, etc.

I think I may have enjoyed this if I had selected an essay or two to read once a week for a while. Something about cramming them all in made the novelty wear off quickly. What's more, I like my collections to have some sort of point or defining theme, and this seemed to lack that. I guess you could argue it was "funny things that (probably) happened to David," but that's counting on the reader finding most or all of it funny.

There were times when I think the humor was distracted because his characters and situations were just too much. It was like hearing a person tell a story you just know is exaggerating and following it up with a, "did you really say that?" I can imagine Sedaris saying, "well, I did in my head..." Whether or not that cheapens the story is up for you to decide. For me, sometimes it did and sometimes it didn't. Hence, the three stars.

Not a bad read over all, and I'd be curious to read more from Sedaris, but perhaps not right away. I'll give it some time.